When everything is on you should see the same output on each monitor. The desktop is "cloned" on to the secondary monitors. If all the monitors are not exactly the same shape or support different resolutions you may only see portions of the main desktop display.

When everything is on you should see the same output on each monitor. The desktop is "cloned" on to the secondary monitors. If all the monitors are not exactly the same shape or support different resolutions you may only see portions of the main desktop display.

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The best tool to experiment with configuring your monitors to display as you want is xrandr. This may already installed as part of your Xorg installation from either the xorg or xorg-apps packages.

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Use xrandr to experiment with different configurations until you arrive at settings you want to make permanent. The [[Dualhead]] and [[xrandr]] pages

Revision as of 21:00, 31 August 2012

Extreme Multihead

Configuring Multiple Monitors

Experiment to find best setup (xrandr)

Make the setup default (xorg.conf.d)

Accessing Remote Systems from a Single Desktops

Simple remote access (rdc)

Complex remote access (Xdmc)

Keyboard & Mouse Sharing (Synergy)

Complete Integration (Xdmx)

Several monitors can be attached to a single computer system. Many years ago this was only possible by installing two or more video cards in a computer. Then some high-end video cards began appearing with outputs for two monitors. Nowadays, most laptops come with a main display and a socket for an external monitor while the integrated video cards on desktop systems provide VGA + DVI + HDMI outputs as standard. If you plug in multiple monitors to whatever video sockets you have available, they will more often than not "just work" - offering two or more versions of the same display. In some cases this is exactly what is required; allowing the same desktop to be viewed from different directions.

It is also possible to have these multiple monitors work together as an extended single desktop. It is even possible to join the displays from several computers - each with single or multiple monitors - into one very large extended desktop.

This document describes how to go configure such a system.

Experimenting with Multiple Monitors

The easiest way to begin experimenting with multiple monitors is start with a system which has a working X setup supporting a single monitor. If you already have the additional equipment installed

a video card with multiple video outputs or multiple vide cards

monitors plugged into each of the video outputs

When everything is on you should see the same output on each monitor. The desktop is "cloned" on to the secondary monitors. If all the monitors are not exactly the same shape or support different resolutions you may only see portions of the main desktop display.

The best tool to experiment with configuring your monitors to display as you want is xrandr. This may already installed as part of your Xorg installation from either the xorg or xorg-apps packages.

Use xrandr to experiment with different configurations until you arrive at settings you want to make permanent. The Dualhead and xrandr pages